Aaron Hernandez Invokes Fifth Amendment In Case

News surrounding Aaron Hernandez has been quiet in recent weeks, but a recent development was revealed by Wesley Lowery of the Boston Globe. Hernandez has asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to a civil lawsuit filed by Alexander Bradley.

Bradley alleges that Hernandez shot him in the face and left him for dead back in February after the two spent time at a Miami-area strip club called Tootsie’s Cabaret. Bradley was found outside of a tractor store by employees lying on the ground and bleeding from the head.

At the time, Bradley told police that he didn’t know who his attacker was and refused to help with the search. As a result, the police were forced to close the investigation.

In response to the lawsuit, Hernandez’s attorneys submitted a four-page filing in which he refused to acknowledge everything related to Bradley’s case against Hernandez. This phrase was used a total of 13 times in their response to Bradley: “Defendant asserts his rights under the Fifth Amendment and, therefore, declines to respond to the allegations.”

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk points out that While Hernandez is within his rights not to incriminate himself, a jury is allowed to use Hernandez’s refusal to respond to the allegations when deliberating the case. The fact that Hernandez wouldn’t even say that he was innocent of the charges certainly doesn’t help his case.

Hernandez’s attorneys requested that the Bradley case be delayed until after the Odin Lloyd trial came to a conclusion, but US District Court Kathleen Williams, who is presiding over the Bradley case, denied their appeal.